Last weekend I went to my very 1ST chili cook off at my sister & brother in law Shannon and Greg’s house! I was all sorts of excited. I will tell you now, I didn’t win, BOO! But oh well. So I thought I could share my chili recipe with you all and maybe you could make it and judge for yourself and ee if it’s a winner? I (of course) feel it was a winner. But hellooooo, I made it, so OF COURSE I will say that…There were a lot of things I added to my recipe so check it out…

Here’s all that I used:

Lots of stuff!

So I wrote it down as I went, Don’t judge my spelling! it is not good at ALL!

Page 2

Along with writing it down, I took pictures!
that is a LOT of stuff that went in my chili

I even added Cocoa! (yes Strange I know) But I’ve found a lot of recipes where they use cocoa. And this girl in my culinary school used it in her chili when we had a chili cooking contest. So that was my thinking! She used it, so I should use it, so I can win! (yes I am strange, I know).

So I started with 2 pounds of Ground Chuck (the dude at the meat counter weighed it wrong, was supposed to be 2 pounds)

I had Normy cook the meat for me, this is his department. The cooking of the meat, and playing with the meat. (that sounds so wrong).

To help ground the meat up, Normy breaks it off in chunks into a preheated pot to med high heat. (get a big pot, you gotta get all that stuff from the picture before to fit) Normy used our caldero pot.

So break all the meat up with your hands and throw it in the pot

until it’s all added

then grab a pound of ground pork sausage

and just throw that in, At this point Normy is sick of breaking meat apart with his hands so just throw the pork in and break it up

grind and mix it all in with the beef

and cook and stir every now and then until the meat is browned, 10-12 minutes

Then turn the burner off and get a colander and take the pot of meat and drain the grease from the pot

stir it around in the colander to help get as much grease out as you can (greeeeasy)

then pour the drained meat from the colander back into the pot or (cauldron in Spanish).

Then just when you think nothing else will fit into the full pot, go ahead and add in a 12oz can tomato paste

then add in Fresh Ground black pepper
(Yes Random that I add this in now, that’s because I forgot to add it).

Then add in 1/2 a tablespoon of cocoa powder

and 1 tbsp of sugar

and then 1/2 a cup of chopped cilantro

Stir everything in really well.

this pot is as full as it can be

put the lid on and let it simmer for an hour, stirring a few times

so at this point I want to try my creation, so I grab a bowl and fill it with fritos and grated Monterey jack cheese and chili and taste

So I didn’t need the chili until the next day for the cook off. But I made it the day before to make it one less thing to do the day off the cook off! So I let it simmer for another hour and then let it cool and put it in the fridge.

So then the next day I woke up and popped the chili in the crock pot and let it warm up then hit the road to Colorado Springs for the Cook off!

Here are the tasting cups for everyone

So I couldn’t think of a fun name for my chili so this is what I came up with

The prep for this dish takes the longest, so get everything chopped and ready beforehand. Once you get cooking, you add ingredients fairly quickly.

Prep the veggies:
Dice the onion and red pepper. Drain and rinse the water chestnuts. Mince the garlic and the ginger. Cut out the core of the iceberg lettuce and give it a rinse. Allow the lettuce to drain, and carefully loosen the leaves.

Prep the sauce:
Mix together the soy sauce,

oyster sauce,

peanut chili sauce,

hoisin sauce and the sesame oil.

Heat a wok or large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the peanut oil to the pan, allow it to heat up for a minute, then add the diced onion.

Cook the onion for a few minutes. When it starts to become translucent (after 4 or 5 minutes), add the garlic and ginger.

Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the ground meat.

Brown the meat,

then add the red pepper

and water chestnuts,

stirring constantly.

After another 3 or 4 minutes, add in the Chinese cooking wine.

Allow this to sizzle and cook for about a minute, then add in the sauce. Stirring frequently, let this cook for 2 or three minutes. The sauce should thicken a bit. If it doesn’t, you can add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch.

Serve with the iceberg lettuce: take one leaf and add a few heaping spoonfuls of the meat mixture, fold up, and enjoy!

One day I was trying to come up with a grocery list! As I have told you all before I usually plan a list the week before, for Sunday and normy and me go to the store. Well in the summertime it seems our weekends are full! So we don’t make it to the store, so I make a list and Normy goes on Monday after work cause he gets off before me…so one Monday I was slacking and didn’t have a list so had to come up with one fast. So I was looking at http://iowagirleats.com/ website and then I came across this recipe and I just had to make it! So I guess it paid this time to slack!

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons chopped onion (white or red)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (or 2 minced anchovies), optional

salt & pepper

28oz can good quality petite diced tomatoes

3 cups water

12oz dry rotini pasta

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley + more for garnish, chopped

2 Tablespoons capers

Heat oil in a very large skillet over medium heat.

Add onions,

garlic, red chili pepper flakes, and anchovy paste.

Season with salt and pepper then saute until onions soften, about 4 minutes.

2. Add petite diced tomatoes,

water,

pasta,

and salt, then bring the liquid to a boil. Place a lid on top of the skillet then keep the pasta at medium-high heat to maintain a vigorous simmer. Cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring often, or until pasta is al dente. Do not overcook, and do not worry if there is extra liquid still in the skillet.

Turn the heat off, add the olives,

parsley,

and capers to the skillet then stir to combine. Serve topped with freshly chopped parsley.

So Father’s Day was June 17th. So for my Dad I made him a fabulous Jamie dinner (imagine that). Hey I think the best gifts you can give are homemade ones! I love to cook homemade so that’s what I made my pops!

First things first, Preheat your oven to 250 degrees

Get a whole chicken, a big one, a 6 pounder

So I washed the bird and pulled the guts out and dabbed it with paper towels, then put it in a roasting pan or as I did in my le creuset. I started with breast side down to season it with Salt & Pepper & BBQ Rub from Kansas City and Liquid smoke

Then I turned it over and did the same but really seasoned it with the BBQ Rub on top

Seasoned it with these 4 things

Then I took 3 pieces of bacon and cut them in half and then layed them across the top of the chicken. My thinking was as the chicken and bacon cooks the bacon grease would run down onto the breasts and keep them nice and moist, aaaaand my dad LOVES bacon!

This Chicken would make ANY man happy!

So pop the chicken in the oven, covered for 5 hours…

My Dad

Normy made Garlic Mashed potatoes for Dad too…No recipe really…Just cube a bunch of potatoes and boil them till soft, then drain

Then get a stick of butter and melt it in a skillet and chop up a bunch of garlic cloves and saute, until you smell the garlic

Add some sour cream and Salt and pepper to the drained potatoes

Then pour the melted butter and sautéed garlic over the potatoes

VERY Healthy for you!

Then start mashing…

add some cheese

mash some more

Maybe the potatoes need more Sour Cream

So this is what Normy added to his mashed taters
Pepper (and salt, but its not in this picture)
Milk
Sour Cream
Parmesan Cheese

Now back to the chicken
so after the chicken has baked for 5 hours covered I uncovered it and baked it at 350 for another 20-30 minutes to crisp the skin and bacon.

I think its done…

So Normy got my dad some beer for Father’s Day and my dad was having himself a pretty good time with that beer Normy got him

Look at that Farmer’s Tan

Hey I know you!

So once you bake the chicken for another 20-30 minutes or until the thermometer is 185 degrees (that’s what I cooked mine too) pull it out and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Then start cutting that bird up….

So I have a lot of people and things that inspire me in my world of cooking.

1st my hubby inspires me, he doesn’t have to do anything really to inspire me, but eat my food. But I am ALWAYS saying to him I wanna cook this and I want to make this and this looks good and I want to go to this store or to the farmer’s market…

I also have people like Lori, who is my #1 food blog fan. She found me through my blog, and she says that I inspire her! Well if I inspire someone, then that inspires me even more! It’s nice to inspire people! Makes you feel good and stuff!

Another person who inspires me (as you ALL KNOW) is The Pioneer Woman

I love her! I love all her pictures on her blog and all of her recipes. I like how she writes and how goofy she can be on her blog. I don’t think I have made a recipe of hers that I haven’t liked! She makes yummy recipes that I feel most anyone would like!

Something else that inspires me is when people make my recipes like for example Dave, who found me through my Flickr account…He finds recipes on my blog and then makes them.

Like this picture, I did NOT take it, Dave did! He got the inspiration from my blog.

He also made this:

recipe
Makes me happy when people make my recipes, but when they take pretty pictures of the recipe they make, I love it even more and inspires me to make more recipes! Inspires me to make more recipes in hopes they make my recipes too and even take pictures too!!!!!

Another person that inspires me is Lidia Bastianich. How can you not love her? She’s been around forever and she can cook!
and she cooks my 2nd favorite food, Italian!

When I went to Kansas City I wanted to eat at one of her Restaurants, but it was closed for Memorial Day holiday…

To prove I was there…

I have two of her cookbooks and her cooking is a little intimidating to me. But when I watch her show I just want to make all her recipes. They look SO good! I really should make more of her recipes!

Another person who inspires me in Ina Garten also known as:

The Barefoot Contessa. I like her style of cooking. She always says use “good” olive oil, use “good” salt. Meaning Good Quality, and I totally agree with her. Shes a bit of a snob, as she should be. Living in the Hamptons. I like a lot of the foods she makes and her style, she doesn’t go on and on when cooking, she gets down to business and just does it! Only thing is she doesn’t like cilantro, so there are no recipes that she makes that call for it, and I LOVE cilantro!

I also LOVE Giada De Laurentiis. She started with Every Day Italian on The Food Network and then she has a new show: Giada at Home and I like that show better. I like her style, because she makes some damn good food! She makes my one of FAVORITE salmon recipe that I ALWAYS make!

I like how neat she is, as in clean when she cooks. I don’t like how she describes everything though, that gets annoying to me, she likes to use her hands and rrrrreally gets into describing how something tastes or smells. Her food is light and fresh too. Overall I like her style…

So now that you know some of the people who inspire me, let’s get to the good stuff, the Recipe!

so I made this recipe up

Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees

once the oven has been preheated place a cast iron skillet inside, get the skillet nice and hot and ready for when you are ready for it…

you will need one pound of Baby Red Potatoes

wash them and place them on a paper towel to dry

then slice them in half, like so

place them in a medium-sized bowl

and drizzle olive oil over them

then sprinkle garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper over the top, to taste

Then sprinkle on about 1/2 a cup of Panko break Crumbs

Stir all together

Then take your warmed cast iron skillet out of the oven and throw the potatoes in the pan, They should sizzle for you. Then place the skillet back in the oven and back the potatoes for about 15 minutes

once they have baked for 15 minutes then flip them and then bake another 15 minutes, or until fork tender. You could turn the heat up too as well to get them a little more crispy and brown…

So once the potatoes are done pull them out of the oven and then chop up some fresh dill and about 5 green onions and sprinkle them over the potatoes

Wanted to try this recipe because I thought it was interesting. Root Beer and Pork…What the heck! I like trying new things, let’s go with it! I also decided to invite James over when I made this dish too…

1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin (pork shoulder or butt can also be used) ( I used Pork Butt, cause I like me a nice piece of butt) HA!

1 (12 ounce) can of root beer

1 (18 ounce) bottle of barbecue sauce
8 hamburger buns

Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker (I used my le creuset instead, and cooked in the oven at 250 all day) and pour the can of root beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until pork shreds easily with a fork.

After pork has cooked, drain and discard the root beer.

Shred the pork and place it back in the slow cooker (le creuset). Pour the barbecue sauce over the pork and stir to combine. Serve immediately or keep warm in slow cooker until ready to serve. Serve on hamburger buns.

In a heavy large saucepan, brown chicken on high for 3-4 minutes with a little spray oil.

Add water,

balsamic,

soy sauce,

agave,

garlic,

ginger,

hot sauce

and cook on high until liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes.

Remove cover and bring heat to high, allowing sauce to reduce down, about 8-10 minutes, until it becomes a thick glaze, turning chicken occasionally. (Keep an eye on glaze, you don’t want it to burn when it start becoming thick) Transfer chicken to a platter and pour glaze on top. Top with chives and sesame seeds and serve.

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Hey there everyone, my name is Jamie! I first got the name crazy Jamie from my mother in law, who would call me crazy Nena, which means Crazy woman in Spanish. Then my friend Stacey, her kids would call me Crazy Jamie from the crazy, goofy things I would do with them! So here I am Crazy Jamie! I am 39 years young and LOVE all things Food! From cooking it, to looking for new recipes, to taking pictures of it, to talking about it, oh and (of course) eating it!! I did the whole culinary school thing. When I was in culinary school, I discovered that I liked cooking more than baking, the one class I didn’t like was bake shop…I thought baking was hard and it had to be exact and to me it was a lot of work….and now I am going on 3 years of baking at a cupcakes shop. Head baker! Funny how things work out. Now I think I like baking more than I like cooking! I have been married to my hubby Normando for 9 years. We got married on 8-8-08. We have our little kitty Olive that we adore! She’s our 4 legged kid! We live in Denver, Colorado! I have lived in Colorado my whole life and don’t ever want to move! I love the mountains and hiking and riding my bike! I love cooking for friends and family and love making birthday cakes, or cupcakes for friends and family. I love looking on Pinterest and trying new ingredients! I am always looking for new recipes! So I became obsessed with taking pictures of the food I would make and I wanted to share what I was making with the world. So I created this blog! I am not the best writer or speller so beware if you are a grammar person! This chic SUCKS at grammar! But I love sharing what I cook with the world! I also love sharing recipes with people as well. So this is me, welcome to my world!